From My Commonplace Book: Quotes I Love

Like Paul Theroux, I served in the Peace Corps in Malawi. His short story, The Killing of Hastings Banda (1971), was practically required reading before embarking for service. (I read it on microfilm at a university library.) His National Geographic article on his return to Malawi came out while I was serving there. A few years ago, he wrote a novel set in current-day Malawi, on the way the country has fared since Independence. This quote is from that novel, The Lower River,

[His marriage was over…] “he missed the eventlessness of it, his old routines, the monotony that had seemed like a friend. ” (p.17).

Possibly the best description of true marriage–the joyful sameness of it–or, depending on your outlook, the drudgery of the monotony.